258 EAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



covered by the loose earth which had been removed. In 

 fact, nearly every trace of an excavation having been 

 made is carefully removed. 



As to the whereabouts of the Muhlenberg turtles, ex- 

 cept in early summer, I am wholly " at sea." For many 

 years I never saw a specimen at any time, and my ex- 

 periences of the past two years cover only the months of 

 May and June. That they are not in the same shallow 

 ditches later in the summer, wherein both my son and 

 I found them in May, I am very positive. That they 

 are wandering about the woods, howsoever damp they 

 may be, seems to me quite improbable. I have instituted 

 such careful search for them in the very localities where, 

 if wood-haunters, they would surely be, that it is incredi- 

 ble that any of them should have been overlooked. In- 

 deed, the five specimens captured during the past summer 

 were liberated June 15th, and placed in a small brook 

 that ran through a low-lying, densely-wooded valley. 

 Up to the present time (August) no trace of them has 

 been discovered. Were damp woods the summer haunts 

 of these turtles, they would certainly not have wandered 

 far away ; and I doubt their being possessed of sufficient 

 cunning to elude my eager search for them. But one 

 other locality suggests itself, and this is the deeper 

 waters of the tide-water creeks, and those swamps that 

 are deep by reason of quicksands. Here, it may be, the 

 summers and winters of this turtle are passed. Indeed, 

 I found that the Muhlenberg turtles that I kept in con- 

 finement could readily remain under the surface of the 

 water in an aquarium for several hours without apparent 

 inconvenience ; and when, later, an individual of this 

 species was associated with one each of the mud-turtle, 

 the painted turtle, and the spotted turtle, in an aquarium, 

 the Muhlenberg proved to be as active a swimmer, and 



